DNA database

The European Union "Prum Treaty" allows automated access to national police databases holding biometrics and data on DNA, fingerprints and vehicle registrations.

The proposed Stockholm programme aims to harmonise databases and IT systems to make this process easier. The European Extradition Warrant allows the courts of any EU country to call on those of another to order the automatic extradition of anyone suspected of offences under 32 headings, including "xenophobia" and any criminal offence affecting public order and security.

The Home Office had hoped biometric enrolment for ID cards would take place in post offices however, a report by the Business and Enterprise Committee found "many or even most identity services may well be too sophisticated to provide across the [post office] network and..................that the ability to identify increasingly sophisticated counterfeits and forgeries has become a specialist skill which Post Office staff, who handle a very wide range of business and general transactions, cannot be expected to have".

This will greatly increase the estimated cost of £5billion for the ID card scheme that the Tories and Lib Dems say they would scrap..

Then there is the Integrated Children's System (ICS) which replaces the 'at risk' register. Local authorities have spent the past four years implementing the Government's £72m ICS scheme amid threats that critical funding would be cut if they did not comply.